Showtime Tries to Build Identity With New Series : Television: The new ‘full-service menu’ puts emphasis on weekly shows instead of monthly specials.

A bald, rotund comedian dancing in a one-piece gold bathing suit and boots.

Suicidal puppets.

A Steven Spielberg wanna-be filmmaker invading the home of a quirky Sherman Oaks family.

Adult cartoons.

No, these are not upcoming topics on “Ricki Lake” or “Jerry Springer.” They are the farcical premises of new weekly series that the Showtime channel is mounting starting tonight as part of a strategy to establish a more distinctive identity among pay-cable companies.

Steven Hewitt, executive vice president of Showtime Entertainment Group, said in an interview that the network was moving away from its policy of monthly music and comedy specials in order to schedule the weekly series.

“This is a new era for Showtime,” Hewitt said. “We’ve done a lot of research and found out that we did not have enough original programming on for our subscribers to know when it was on. There wasn’t enough volume for them to remember. People don’t watch TV monthly, they watch it weekly.”

He compared Showtime’s previous policy to a restaurant menu: “We were the specials on the menu. A customer may not remember the specials, but they remember the regular menu. We want to provide a full-service menu to our subscribers.”

Hewitt described the slate of new programming as edgy and adult in nature.

He said the channel was not launching the programming as a direct challenge to rival HBO, which has several weekly series, including “The Larry Sanders Show” and “Dream On.”

“We don’t have the financial resources or the subscriber base to go head-to-head,” said Hewitt, noting that Showtime has 10 million subscribers as opposed to HBO’s 20 million. “But we think that we can put on programs that are sexier and more controversial. We want to provide more original programming than any other premium service.”

Most of the series have commitments for 12 or 13 episodes.

Showtime’s strategy begins tonight at 11:30 with the premiere of “Howie Mandel’s Sunny Skies,” starring the hyperactive comedian, who is also executive producer, director and co-writer. The show combines sketches with Mandel’s stand-up material.

Mandel will be followed by “Full Frontal Comedy,” which will feature comics, sketches and adult-oriented animation. The show is hosted by Dom Irrera.

Also new to the Showtime lineup is “Sherman Oaks,” a comedy about an aspiring filmmaker who moves in with a Sherman Oaks family to make a documentary about them. The series premieres Sunday at 11 p.m., followed at 11:30 p.m. by “Twisted Puppet Theatre,” featuring puppets involved in adult comedy sketches.

In addition, Showtime on Sunday will inaugurate a weekly series of original films that will air at 8 p.m. The kickoff film will be “Convict Cowboy” with Jon Voight. Other scheduled films include a remake of “Sahara” starring Jim Belushi, “Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron” and a miniseries, “Hiroshima.”

Current Showtime series, including “The Outer Limits,” “Roger Corman Presents,” “Fallen Angels,” “30-Minute Movie” and “Zalman King’s Red Shoe Diaries,” will continue.